Ara Nerses Knaian: "An electropermanent magnet is a solid-state device whose external magnetic field can be modulated by an electrical pulse. No electrical power is required to maintain the field, only to do mechanical work or to change the device's state."

so i put up a kickstarter project for this, would greatly appreciate any feedback

That is very, very cool. I have to ask...given the potential efficiency gains to be made in many common applications (think fail-safe/fail-secure door locks as one example, did you not consider taking this a bit further than a DIY project?

i did, this kickstarter project is just the beginning to check demand and to climb the learning curve to go from prototype into production. there are tons of application, stepper motor where torque does not relate to I^2*R loses my favorite one

i did, this kickstarter project is just the beginning to check demand and to climb the learning curve to go from prototype into production. there are tons of application, stepper motor where torque does not relate to I^2*R loses my favorite one

I see. And yes...whoa...

I'll pitch in. But only if you promise to let me invest when you monetize.

A thought on the stepper motor idea...it makes sense in low frequency applications (as in, low frequency of movement), but in any application such as, say, servo style applications...you rapidly approach the I^2R issue anyway depending on how quickly you switch state/position. That said, it might make a lot of sense even in very large scale industrial applications. I'll stop there.

the break even point, where a electromagnet performs just as well as en EP depends on the size, eg lots of small magnet pols=better, and for the sizes i am aiming for its in the 100th of herz, so no 60000RPM that's for sure, but servos are definitely on the table i would say

bobo5195 : magnetic field in question doesn't store a lot of energy, that's why it is easy to switch but also why you can't extract a lot of energy out (if you just have something stick to the magnet, it's only pulling with any force for last few millimetres - i.e. not a lot of energy). The point is that you would not need to keep the current running merely to hold something in place with this magnet. Spend energy to switch magnet on, now it can pick up something when it gets close to that (using stored energy).

the break even point, where a electromagnet performs just as well as en EP depends on the size, eg lots of small magnet pols=better, and for the sizes i am aiming for its in the 100th of herz, so no 60000RPM that's for sure, but servos are definitely on the table i would say

Interesting...

(if you ever start a kickstarter to build a mech using these things I'm def in)

Having said that, I'll likely donate once I get some dosh. This looks cool, and this could be real handy for my plans to create a fleet of household cleaning robots.

i did, this kickstarter project is just the beginning to check demand and to climb the learning curve to go from prototype into production. there are tons of application, stepper motor where torque does not relate to I^2*R loses my favorite one

I see. And yes...whoa...

I'll pitch in. But only if you promise to let me invest when you monetize.

The only difference here being that the two states you are switching between here are not symmetrical, instead one is constraining the magnetic field lines through the iron U-shaped pieces (like in a transformer), and the other state is with an external field. But a very similar idea overall.